Rain Play

After dropping Rio off at school Ila took her time walking back home in the rain. The big attraction was sending the leaf boats down the drain.

The neighboring wall encloses what seems to be an abondoned Chateau Mont Fleury with its vast eucalyptus gardens and what looks like a huge neglected chateau (in the most prime real estate area). Based on the old, broken lamplights next to the chateau gates, it looks like it's been empty for many decades now. This will make an interesting research project at the Nice library.

Progress, of sorts

Our stuff finally reached us.

But, we still need hot water, heating, fridge, stove, phone, tv, internet, washing machine, dishwasher, sand for the sandbox, lounge chairs, bbq, new dining room table (broken by movers), chairs, lamps galore!, bed for Ila, more paint for the walls, wood for book cases...

However, being able to sit on our terrace yesterday eating a cold roasted chicken and having a glass of wine overlooking the sea and the Cap Ferrat lighthouse, made it all worth it.

What's for dinner

Since it's been so cold and rainy here, we've been craving hot soup de roche. It's made out of a special mix of local fish, some quite charming, some so ugly they probably taste great, and the usual mix of vegetables and tons of garlic. Strangely, this beautifully fresh mix appeared today at our local Carrefour. I thought one shouldn't buy fish on Mondays, but they didn't have much in stock - so I chanced it.

La Nouvelle!

Rio started her new school today - Ecole du Mont Boron.
The school is located on top of the hill of Mont Boron overlooking the sea and the mountains. It's right next to the park, so it has a feeling of a countryside school. Being in a small turn of the century villa doesn't hurt either.

It's definitely a tiny school. There are two teachers, one of whom is the school director, and two classrooms. Rio is in the downstairs classroom for smaller kids. There are four tables representing different levels and three or four kids sit at each table. The entire school maybe has 30 something kids. It's also quite an international mix. In her classroom of 15 there are six children who speak another language at home.

This is our school commute. We can either walk up to the school using this staircase, or hike up the hill next to our house and walk through the park to get to the school. Either way, it's a workout - especially for little Ila.


And here's our La Nouvelle (Rio's current nickname at school) in front of the school gate. She was excited to go to school at 8:20am...and still happy at 4:30pm, so I think we did well school wise.

Got our keys today!

Snapped few bad pictures as we were doing inventory check-in today. The place looks a bit better empty without the golden buddhas, love beads and ugly sofas. But it still needs quite a bit of imaginative work. A lot of imaginative work. So if any creative Broadway set designers feel like coming over for a little vacation in the sun - please let me know (hint hint Roger!).

One thing for sure - we got swayed by the views and the outdoor space!

The picture on top is from the future Rio/Ila bedroom and their little balcony. The picture below, which doesn't do reality any justice, is the view looking left. We can see the bottom tip of Cap Jean Ferrat with its lighthouse. And you can also see a small portion of the selling point - the terrace. The other side is a garden with orange trees, a little pool and a covered outdoor eating area. Give us a month - and we'll be ready to entertain :)



And walking out the door you're confronted with the dramatic views of snowed-in Alps. There's tons of street work at the moment as they're putting all the wires under the street.

I guess "vacation" is over and time to get back to doing some serious work.

Boring Bail

We are now the proud locataires of an apartment/ villa in Mont Boron on Route Forestière du Mont Boron. Planning to move in sometime by the end of the month- whenever our stuff will arrive from the UK.

Luckily we didn't need Rio's signature for our new lease agreement. The French legalese put her to sleep in 5 minutes.

Our three musketeers

The third musketeer came for few days to brighten Rio's no-school routine. We managed to squeeze in carnival fireworks, beach fashion catwalk exercises, introducing AL to anchovy treats, day excursion to Eze (only 20min by bus), and few minutes of sunshine.

Of course the minute our visitors hopped on the train we had another glorious sunny day. They should've stayed longer!